Welcome to our February Newsletter

Happy New Year to all our families. We would like to welcome all our new parents and children who have recently joined us. We hope that you enjoy your time at the Pre-School Centre and if you have any queries please do not hesitate to speak to a member of staff.

Vacancies at the Pre-School Centre

The Pre-School Centre at Lancaster University currently has opportunities available to join our Outstanding setting.

These opportunities include positions for Early Years Practitioners (Level 2 and Level 3) and apprentices. 

Roles available offer extremely competitive salaries and include full time roles equivalent to 36.5 hours per week and part-time roles.

Employed by Lancaster University you will further benefit from 25 days Annual Leave per year in addition to Statutory Holidays and Closure days. 

These roles offer a great opportunity to join an Outstanding Early Years Education setting, with the successful candidates joining a team of experienced and enthusiastic practitioners, who are dedicated and committed to the delivery of high-quality individualised learning for each child who attends the Centre.

Main Door Access

Can we please ask ALL parents to ensure that when accessing the Pre-School Centre they use their access cards/fobs. We are experiencing a high volume of disruption due to the doorbell being used so frequently. 

If any parents have either lost their door access card/fob please ensure that you inform the office so that a replacement can be purchased for £5. Any Library cards that have been replaced will need to be activated on our system.

Contact Details

Please remember to provide us with any new contact details, you can do this via the ParentZone app or by calling/advising the office.

Spare Clothing Request

Donations of spare clothing for the Pre-School rooms (age 3 to 5 years) would be appreciated. Supplies are running low for when the children require a change.

Home Corner Resources

Resources for our home-corner would be gratefully accepted, examples of items include sieves, pots, pans and wooden utensils. Please speak to your child’s keyperson if you have any queries about what we could use.

Bike Trailer Storage

Can we please request that parents using bike trailers, store them in the bike shelter (adjacent to the Pre-School Centre) and not in the pram store, as this causes problems for parents trying to store their prams/pushchairs in the Pram Store. 

Can we please also request that parents storing prams/pushchairs in the Pram Store ensure that they fold them if possible due to lack of storage space. Click the link below to view a map of where bike stores are located on campus.

Muddy Badger Clothing

Designed to inspire a sense of exploration and discovery in all kids, regardless of gender, Muddy Badger clothing is sustainably made to help protect the planet for their future. 

"Hi, my name is Kathy and I launched Muddy Badger in October 2022 to provide an alternative to the gender stereotyped clothing offered by many of the big brands. 

It all started when I tried to buy a t-shirt as a birthday present for a friend's son who is a keen gymnast. Every gymnastics related t-shirt that I could find featured an obviously female gymnast, so I ended up designing one myself. Nearly everywhere I looked, children’s clothes were divided into boys and girls, with girls' choices mainly limited to pink and purple, adorned with rainbows and unicorns, while boys’ t-shirts and jumpers depicted them as either adventurous or naughty.  

Gender stereotyping from an early age limits both girls and boys and contributes to the inequality that we see later in life so, deciding to be the difference that I wanted to see, I started creating my own designs and Muddy Badger was born."

For more information please click on the link below.

Childcare Sufficiency Assessment

Lancashire County Council are requesting for parents, if possible, to complete a short 5-minute survey which will allow them to collect views from parents that use childcare/early education as part of their Childcare Sufficiency Assessment.

All submissions are anonymous. For parents wishing to take part in the survey there are posters located within the Centre containing a link to the survey and QR code for parents wishing to use a mobile device.

Family Theatre is back at The Dukes

The Dukes Theatre have a wide variety of family shows this season ranging from shows suitable for 6 month olds to shows for 5+ and adults. 

There are 7 family shows to choose from this season. Families can apply for a Season Family pass that provides 15% off when 3 shows are booked or 10% off when 2 shows are booked. The season is beginning with:

toooB (4th March) is an enchanting wordless performance suitable for ages 6 - 24 month olds. A gentle sensory adventure where a performer is costumed inside a giant caterpillar-like tunnel creation, magically manipulating it before playfully emerging from the tunnel and inviting the audience to play. 

Curious Investigators (25th March) is an interactive engineering adventure for young scientists created in collaboration with engineering experts from Lancaster University: a delightfully surprising, highly visual show.

The funny, loveable Twirlywoos (8th-9th April) are brought to life on stage with beautifully inventive puppetry promising an hour of colourful fun and laughter. From the producers of The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show, Twirlywoos Live is an enchanting introduction to theatre for all ages.

The Singing Mermaid (30th-31st May) with three skilled performers, beautiful puppets and music & songs by Barb Jungr (We’re Going on a Bear Hunt), Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks’ much-loved story is a perfect treat for all the family.

For further information contact the Box Office: 01524598500.

myHappymind Presentation with Lunch

The children in Pre-School’s 1 and 3 recently celebrated the completion of the first myHappymind modules. They were very excited to share all their learning with the parents who were able to attend the Presentation and proudly demonstrated their Happy breathing techniques. 

After the certificates were awarded the children and parents were served a delicious lunch by University Head Chef Stuart. It was a lovely event and the children all really enjoyed it, as you can see from the happy faces.

Here’s a reminder if you haven’t already accessed the Parent Resources:

To access these materials go to myHappymind Parent Resources and enter your name, email, and authentication code. Your authentication code is mhm057. We really encourage you to make use of this free content which will enable you to support your child in getting the best out of the curriculum. 

If you have any technical questions about accessing the resources, please contact hello@myHappymind.org

Baby Room

Welcome to the Baby Room

We have had a lovely start to our new term in the Baby Room, welcoming our new babies and families. We are getting to know our babies, following their current routines and interests to support with their settling.

We have started introducing our babies to their new surroundings and have wrapped them up to keep warm before heading out for walks around campus where we saw ducks, diggers and different vehicles. We will continue with our campus walks throughout the term, and will explore new places such as the EcoHub and Library.

Crèche 1

Sustainable Play

This term, Crèche 1 have been focusing on sustainability and how we can be more sustainable through our play. We have been utilising suitable left-over food from meal times and incorporating it into our learning experiences.

Corn Farm

We created a corn farm and the children were able to explore the texture of the corn and use their imagination playing with small world animals. The children enjoyed stomping the animals on the corn, pretended to feed the animals and developed new vocabulary as they engaged in the activity.

Mashing Potatoes

We made a potato mashing station which enabled the children to develop their gross motor skills. The children were able to show good control when using the mashers and they really enjoyed exploring the texture of the potatoes.

The Year of The Rabbit

The children have been learning about Chinese New Year and to tie in with this theme we recreated Peter Rabbit in Mr McGregor’s Garden using left over salad from lunchtime. The children were able to develop and extend their vocabulary as they learnt new words such as ‘rabbit’, ‘Peter’ and ‘Badger’. The children were also able to explore the salad by touching, smelling and tasting. The children were able to make links between the story book and the soft toy rabbits.

Crèche 2

Parachute Play

The children in Crèche 2 have been enjoying using the parachute, they have shown great listening skills, and have shown they understand and are able to follow simple instructions.

They enjoyed throwing balls onto the parachute and making them fly in the sky. By lifting the parachute high, the children were able to run underneath it showing their ongoing physical development going fast, slow and stopping.

We reviewed the room and have changed it around to ensure the children were able to make the most of all the space available. We are also enhancing the areas to meet the growing interests of the children.

Nursery 1

Makaton and Maths

Over the last few weeks in Nursery 1 we have been focusing on introducing Makaton into our play and daily routines. We have implemented “song of the term” which this term is “Mr Tumble Hello, Hello”. The children have enjoyed joining in with the words and signs at music and song time. 

We have also introduced signs around the room as prompts and this along with using signs accompanied with verbal instructions is supporting the understanding of our daily routine.

This term we have also been focusing on implementing maths activities into our play. The children have enjoyed exploring the “Lovevery” boxes in small groups to encourage mathematical development as we teach the children about categorising, matching, counting and recognising shapes.

Nursery 2

Bird Feeding

In Nursery 2 we have spent lots of time listening and looking for the birds in the forest. We have watched them playing in the leaves and sitting in the trees. 

We decided to make some bird feeders for them. We recycled kitchen roll tubes to create the bird feeders. The children loved spreading the tubes with the lard, rolling the tubes in the seeds, and using the scissors to cut lengths of string to hang them into the forest. 

We spoke about what birds like to eat and read parts of the 'Back Garden Nature Reserve' book. We had discussions about what birds we have seen in our own gardens and how we can look after them. We will be visiting the forest to hang our feeders.

Pre-School 1

myHappymind Programme & First Aid

Congratulations to the children In Pre-School 1. They have completed two modules of the myHappymind program, meet your brain and celebrate, within which the children learnt how their brains learn new skills as well as character strengths. Furthermore, the children have been learning several new breathing techniques that will help them to calm down and relax. These include finger breathing, feather breathing and tummy breathing, where the children have to balance a soft toy on their stomachs while controlling their breathing, so the toy does not fall off. 

In other news the children received a special visit from Andrea and Ted the bear, who came to talk to the children about first aid. With assistance from Ted, Andrea taught the children the importance of a cold compress, how to apply a plaster, the recovery position and how to call 999. Alongside this she highlighted the importance of the children knowing their addresses. This is something that you could speak to your child about, as knowing their address could help in many situations.

Pre-School 2

Exploring Seasons

In Pre-School 2 the children have enjoyed exploring winter through a variety of different activities related to the season including, investigating ice which has frozen outside during the night and observing the changes that occurred when we brought it indoors and handled the ice. A 'small world' suitcase created to become a ' winter wonderland' with arctic animals, snowy trees, shiny snowflakes and photographs of various winter animals. Exploring 'cold' colours and colour mixing to create lots of different shades.                          

Recently we enjoyed looking at the first daffodils of the year and used our observational skills to have a go at painting our own daffodils. You could look for the 1st signs of Spring on family walks.

The children are exploring the season with great interest, and we plan to continue this learning watching the changes as the next season approaches.

Pre-School 3

Phonics Time

Pre-School 3 have been introduced to phonics initially starting with developing their listening skills, exploring a variety of sounds within our environment whether that’s inside, outside, in the home or playing games to identify the sounds. This term we have moved on to letter sounds, over the coming weeks we will be exploring the letters s a t p i n. 

What is phonics and why is it important?

The benefits of phonics in early years are not to be understated. It’s a key area that enables children to accomplish lifelong skills. In early years, you need to help your child’s brain develop - for this, it’ll need some exercise. Reading is a complex task that requires lots of new neural pathways in the brain. It's a great way to flex their mental skills. Phonics also enhances general mental skills such as problem-solving, pattern recognition and reasoning. 

Phonics is an area of education that aims to link a child’s understanding of sounds and letter patterns. This helps children to identify and use sounds to distinguish different words from each other.

Phase 1 phonics is just one small part of the EYFS, it is teaching essential speaking and listening skills that are an essential part of education. The goal of phonics instruction is to help children learn the alphabetic principle — the idea that letters represent the sounds of spoken language — and that there is an organised, logical, and predictable relationship between written letters and spoken sounds.

There are weekly small group sessions where the children are able to explore many activities on offer and they will also be offered within the Pre-School room on a daily basis to support continued learning.

Parents of children in Pre-School’s 1 & 3 will shortly receive an invitation to attend a Phonics Workshop in March.

Reminders

Pre-School Website and Newsfeed

We would like to remind parents that you can access regularly updated information from our website and on our Twitter feed.